Digitisation

Why is digital adoption so important?

The manufacturing industry is currently witnessing a transformation as it increasingly moves towards Digital Manufacturing – often known as Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing and Factory of the Future.

Do you keep hearing things about Industry 4.0 but unsure what it really means? And how it affects your business? Industry 4.0 is the future of manufacturing. Through it, the entire manufacturing sector can reap endless rewards that will ultimately lead to considerable, and sustainable, growth. However, we know that many business leaders find it confusing and aren’t clear how it applies to them.

Examples of Industry 4.0 Technologies….

Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing)
Augmented & Virtual Reality
Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive Learning
Big Data & Analytics
Data & Systems Integration
Sensors/Industrial Internet of Things
Automation/Robotics
Mobile Devices & Wearable Tech
Industrial Cyber Security

How Can Digital Technology Help You?

If you find you spend most of your days trying to resolve reoccurring issues such as machine downtime, meeting customer demand, manual tasks causing delays and lack of the right data to support decisions – technology could be the solution.

There are so many benefits that investment in technology can bring to your business, such as:

Reducing inefficiencies and cutting waste
increasing your sales growth
new market opportunities
overcoming capacity and resource issues
boosting your competitiveness
increasing resilience, agility and innovation

Benefits of Digital Technology

Technology enables manufacturing to become more inclusive, connected and holistic through:

Interoperability: Interoperability allows manufacturing businesses, their systems and their machinery to share data and information quickly and accurately. This supports more informed decision-making that can result in greater production efficiency and heightened operational reliability.

Decentralisation: Decentralisation is the ability to design independent sub-processes with cyber-physical elements and make decisions autonomously. It is an exercise that simplifies the entire production process providing manufacturing leaders with greater oversight of the entire production chain.

Real-Time Analytics: Real-time data processing and analytics refers to the abilities of machinery and computers to continuously and automatically gather, process and analyse data to provide real-time insights so that processes can be effectively monitored, controlled, and optimised.

Virtualisation: Virtualisation is the process of producing “virtual” replicas of physical processes and models, creating a digital “copy” of a single production process or an entire warehouse by gathering sensor data from physical equipment and processes. A virtual replica enables manufacturing leaders to understand potential production blockages, manage operation expansion or reduce machine downtime.

Service Orientation: Service orientation transfers additional value through new or enhanced services. It enables the data from manufacturing processes, cyber-physical systems, and humans to be made available to other processes and systems. This can lead to new, more efficient, and productive types of services being created.

Modularity & Scalability: Modular systems are naturally scalable, offering the benefit of being able to react to industry, customer demand, or organisation requirements without resulting in replacement or loss of initial investment.